The policy of the Food Distribution Administration and its predecessor, the Agricultural Marketing Administration, regarding their dealings with consumers' cooperatives, according to the testimony of Mr. Bash on pages 904 and 905, was largely based upon the following letter from the Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics of Puerto Rico: COOPERATIVE EXTENSION WORK IN AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS PUERTO RICO RIO PIEDRAS, P. R., December 9, 1942. To: Mr. Edward J. Bash, director, Agricultural Marketing Administration, San The last 2 months in Puerto Rico have shown an increasing tendency among the population to form consumers' purchasing cooperative associations. The direct cause is the war which has brought about a shortage of foodstuffs, inflation, and speculation. Consumers' purchasing cooperative associations organized previously to this crisis have shown that they can successfully deal with these three important problems. They can establish an adequate rationing system among its members, they can check inflation by following strictly the rules and regulations of the Office of Price Administration and as a consequence of this they will help to stop speculation. The best way to stop speculation is to prevent consumers from paying excessive prices. Consumers pay excessive prices when they have a need for an article and cannot obtain it at a reasonable price. Speculators take advantage of this to charge high prices. Consumers will continue to pay those prices as long as their needs subsist and as long as they would have no opportunity to get it cheaper in some other place. Many consumers have realized this fact and they have decided to establish for themselves a place where to obtain their foodstuffs at reasonable prices. These places are the consumers' cooperative stores that are beginning to open their doors at different towns and cities of Puerto Rico. The public demand for the establishment of consumers' cooperatives is mainly due to the unfair distribution of foodstuffs to the consuming public and to the speculation they are subject from a group of unscrupulous traders. The consumers' purchasing cooperative associations are not a menace to the already existing channels of distribution. They are going to be a menace to speculators. They are going to help the Agricultural Marketing Administration in their distribution of foods and they are going to help the Office of Price Administration in rationing the same foods and fixing their prices. If the existing trade will abide by the rules established by the Agricultural Marketing Administration and the Office of Price Administration, the demand for these organizations will be lessened. On the other hand, if speculation and unfair distribution to the consuming public persists, the pressure for the formation of these organizations will continue and will increase rapidly. In other words, the consuming public will decide as to which group will best serve the community in the present emergency. As long as the public has a place where they can get foodstuffs at prices fixed by the Office of Price Administration they will not buy from speculators. Therefore, consumers' cooperatives will serve as law-enforcing institutions and will be the best check to speculation and unfair distribution. Consumers' cooperatives are not claiming priority of sales from the Agricultural Marketing Administration. They will be subject to rationing on a parity with the existing trade. Their members are carefully informed that buying through the cooperative does not mean they are going to supply themselves with all the foodstuffs they need and that they will only be able to buy their proportionate share of the rationed goods. 88301-44-29 The Agricultural Extension Service feels that it is its duty to help in the organization of these consumers' purchasing cooperative associations as a direct contribution to the orderly distribution of foodstuffs and as a real tool in enforcing pricefixing regulations. We are helping in the organization of these associations based on the assumption that they will be able to buy directly from the Agricultural Marketing Administration. It is essential to the success of a consumers' purchasing cooperative association during the actual crisis to buy directly from this Federal agency that is the only importer of goods in Puerto Rico. We realize that some regulations will have to be established before direct sales from the Agricultural Marketing Administration are made to consumers' cooperatives. We suggest the following: 1. The cooperative organizations will only sell to its members and only in quantities limited by the number of persons in each member's family. 2. The Agricultural Marketing Administration will not sell directly to any association having less than 75 members. The organization will submit to the Agricultural Marketing Administration a complete list of its members and the number of persons included in all the families covered by the association. 3. The associations will submit an estimate of its probable volume of business. 4. To prevent excessive numbers of consumers' cooperatives, their organization should be limited as follows: (a) In towns of less than 10,000 inhabitants the Agricultural Marketing Administration will consider for direct sales only one consumers' cooperative association. There are 67 towns in the island with a population of less than 10,000. (b) In towns with a population of 10,000 to 20,000 only two organizations will be considered. There are four towns in this classification. (c) In towns and cities having population over 20,000 four organizations will be considered. There are five towns and cities in the island having over 20,000 inhabitants. In the assumption that in each town or city of Puerto Rico consumers' purchasing cooperative associations would be formed according to the preceding plan, the Agricultural Marketing Administration would have to consider for direct sale 95 of these associations. Assuming all the associations to have an average of 150 members and each family to consist of 5 persons, we will have that these organizations will distribute food for approximately 71,250 persons in the island, which represents 4 percent of the total population in the island. The actual trend indicates that not all of these associations will be formed. There are only seven organizations already working and incorporated according to the laws of Puerto Rico. These are: 1. Cooperativa de Empleados de la Farm Credit Administration in San Juan. 2. Unión Cooperativa de Inquilinos de la Urbanización Eleanor Roosevelt in Hato Rey. 3. La Juanadina Cooperativa de Producción y Consumo in Juana Díaz. 6. Cooperativa de Vecinos in Vega Alta. 7. Cooperativa de Consumo Naranjiteña in Naranjito. In addition to these there are seven associations already organized but not yet incorporated, two in Bayamón, and one in Humacao, Corozal, Lares, San Germán, and Río Grande. There are about 12 towns where interest is shown, but not very definite steps have been taken to form the organization. These are Arecibo, Yauco, Patillas, Cayey, Ponce, Caguas, Dorado, Aguada, San Sabastián, Fajardo, Jayuya, and Barrio Obrero. Nearly all the associations that are being formed are supervised by the Agricultural Extension Service and financed by some Federal agency. We think that this will be an additional guaranty of the seriousness of these cooperative organizations. We sincerely believe that the problems of food distribution at reasonable prices is of paramount importance and should stand above all other considerations in the present war emergency. We think that consumers' cooperatives will play a very important role in the fair distribution of foodstuffs in the island and they will be an effective way of eliminating existing speculation. They will not seriously affect existing channels of trade, unless the unscrupulous section of these groups continues with their unpatriotic tactics. Therefore, we respectfully request that you give serious consideration to the possibility of selling directly to these true cooperatives in 'behalf of the consuming public. Respectfully yours, LUIS M. GEIGEL, Economist. EXHIBIT No. 105 The names, ages, marital and draft status, the deferments that have been granted, the reasons and sources of requests for deferments, of all continental employees connected with the Insular and Federal Governments, under the age of 38 years, were requested on page 889 by Congressman Domengeaux. This request was filled by Col. Harry F. Besosa, director of selective service for Puerto Rico. The information, together with Colonel Besosa's letter, is as follows: PUERTO RICO HEADQUARTERS, Subject: Report of continental employees connected with the Insular and Federal Hon. VERNON E. MOORE, Clerk of the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: Referring to your letter of September 3, I have the pleasure of enclosing you herein two copies of a consolidated deferment report as of August 30, 1943, covering all continentals under the age of 38, stating names, ages, marital status, classification status, whether or not deferred and reason for deferment, compiled from the individual reports of each and every one of our 122 local boards. Please take note that this report does not cover registrants who are insular or Federal employees, but who are registrants belonging to other States outside of Puerto Rico and concerning which our local boards have no jurisdiction. Hoping that this information will suit your needs, I am, Very sincerely yours, HARRY F. BESOSA, Colonel, Judge Advocate General's Department, |